AMOKArts

Ministering to artists ministering through the arts.

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I highly recommend Dave Weiss for your ministry events. He connects with people in very real ways using amazing art skills and applying the truth of God's Word and soaking you thoroughly in God's love. Book him now for your next service. You won't regret it. I know I didn't. I'm honored to know him. What a great guy!!!!!
Pastor Matt Christ
Little Swatara Church of the Brethren

Posts Tagged ‘book’

I got this book as a free review copy from the publishing company. I guess that technically makes it a paid review, but truth be known, I am just grateful to have read this excellent book. I am prepared to say that every person in ministry should read this book. John W. Gray III is an associate pastor of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church as well as the senior pastor of Relentless Church in South Carolina. His success is notable, but he starts this book talking about how while he was rising to the top and speaking all over the world, his marriage was falling apart. With his priorities out of whack, the man the world knew was very different from the man his family knew.

The subtitle of this book says it all. Finding yourself by facing yourself. By paralleling his own story, with the story of Jacob from Genesis, Gray succeeds at writing a book that is both inspiring and immensely convicting. This book was challenging on every page and had me checking myself. You see, you don’t have to be preaching at one of the largest churches in the world to find yourself getting out of alignment with the will of God and while I don’t think I have strayed too far, I do feel that God gave me this book for such a time as this. If you are in any form of leadership, you really should read this book.

Explanation:the act or process of making something clear or easy to understand.
—Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary

Here’s my explanation. I woke up one morning thinking about a presentation I did a few years ago that dealt with imagination, inspiration and creation. It was about God’s creative process and involving God in our creative process. It was sort of a twisted alliteration. Rather than all the words beginning with the same letter, they all end with the same five letters A-T-I-O-N. All of the sudden a flood of words came into my mind, all ending with those same letters. In one way or another, all these words could easily be associated with God, faith and the creative process. Before long I was writing them all down and contemplating whether they could form the basis for a new book. What if I could find 52 of these “ation” words and use them as sort of a creative devotional to help creative people of faith to consider more deeply their creative calling. There would be one word a week, complete with a definition, a meditation, related texts for further study and creative project ideas to take the concept further. It is my hope that this project will bring people to clearly see the connection between their creativity, their Creator and their calling.

Even as I begin this project, interesting thing are happening. Every time I type the suffix “ation”, auto-correct keeps changing that to “action” and that is probably not coincidental, because the suffix is defined as “an action or process.” Each of these words calls upon us to act in some way. Now of course some will touch you more than others and some will bring greater motivation than others, but I believe all of them have something to offer. So let’s start off looking at “explanation.”

True I used this word to introduce this project, but explanation is a huge part of our calling as Christian creatives. Consider 1 Corinthians 14:9 So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air. 10 Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning. 11 If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me. 12 So it is with you. Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church.

Now one could argue this is about speaking in tongues, and for the record it is, but I believe there are other applications at play here. Consider the new believer in your church. Do you think they understand everything that is being said? As someone who became a believer at 22, I can tell you, they don’t and we Christians tend to forget that and because of that, we tend to “talk over people’s heads.” We may not be “speaking in the tongues of angels” but we might as well be, because we are not being understood. Our message is too important for that. We need to be understood, and as such we need people who have a gift of explanation…

I’ve been working through the outreach chapter of my new book, The Imaginative Church, when I decided to explore the difficulties we run into when thinking about numbers when related to people. I think this might be helpful for my readers today.

Yes, it is about numbers (at least to some degree)

One of the things I hear far too often is it’s not about numbers and of course it’s true. These are precious children of God to whom we’re reaching out. We’d never want to treat them like numbers. They’re special creations with needs and desires and amazing possibilities, not to mention the fact that God has a unique plan and purpose for their lives. People are not numbers and we need to cherish them as the masterpieces they are. No sir, no ma’am, people are not numbers. But numbers are people. Every person you are used to lead to Christ counts. Every person added to the Kingdom, adds something to Kingdom. Every person that comes into your church brings with them gifts and talents and abilities that can be used to make your imaginative church closer to being the church God imagines. Of course I know and believe what John 6:44 says, that no one come to Christ who isn’t drawn by the Spirit, but obedience to Jesus command to go and make disciples has the wonderful byproduct of expanding the reach of your church for Kingdom purposes.

It is for this reason that churches must be faithful in every aspect of disciple making. In the vast majority of cases, disciple making starts with the “therefore go” part, i.e. evangelism. Outreach is a crucial part of the church’s calling. Now I know some will want to cite “wherever two or more are gathered.” That verse is about church leadership and leadership authority, not an excuse to be lax in our duty to be Christ’s witnesses.

I know some will also want to take me to task with the statements about “quality over quantity.” While I will agree that quality is hugely important, I must ask a question. Who appointed us judge over that? Secondly when did quality and quantity become mutually exclusive. They’re not. We are called to both. For a while in the evangelical movement it almost seemed to be a race. We’d get people all fired up, get them to say the sinners prayer and then move onto the next person without a lot of thought to the follow up. It is for this reason that a reminder is in order. Jesus commanded us to make disciples, not converts. Now to be clear, conversion is part of the equation, it’s just not the end of the equation. That’s why Jesus told us to both go AND make disciples. When he made us fishers of men, he did not expect that the people could come into the boat, cleaned, prepped and “Cry-O-Vac sealed for freshness.” No, we are out there to catch them, right where they are, the cleaning comes as Jesus comes in and makes them new creations and as they are discipled by the church, as they grow into disciple making disciples themselves.

I got this book as a review copy from the publisher because I thought it looked interesting. When I first started reading it, I thought I made a mistake, because I thought it was for women. I read a little further and thought it was for me, but slowly I came to the point of realizing it just might be for me.

This book is about men who disconnect relationally from others, especially from their spouses. The reason for my early confusion is because Turner sort of jumps back and forth between writing to the disconnected man and then writing to the women who love them. To be perfectly honest, I thought I was doing well in most of the areas this book explores but after reading them, I can see that a. I have come a long way, and b. I have a long way to go. This may be one of the most helpful books I have ever read. I truly believe every man should probably read this book, because Turner delves deep into the blindspots many of us carry.

This is not some over your head, psychological self-help book. This is a book written by someone whose been there. It is full of the author’s personal examples and battle scars. The book manages to walk the line between extremely challenging and extremely rewarding. I can’t say I enjoyed this book. That would be like saying I enjoyed surgery. What I will say instead is this is an important book that I am glad I read. Men, read this book. Women, if you find yourself having a hard time with your relationship, don’t separate, read this book.

Well I thought by now my book, Enough, would be out by now. I put my covers online to get opinions and most people didn’t like either of them. That set the process back a little bit. You see, my plan was to do internal illustrations for each of the chapters to try to continue the theme throughout. Coming up with a new design was difficult but I’m getting there and working on the internal illustrations as well.

If I want to be honest, there was part of me that regretted posting the covers and not trusting my instincts. If I had trusted my instincts, the book would be out by now. Why didn’t I just charge in and do it my way? Something didn’t feel right about the designs. The folks who commented confirmed some of the vague discomfort I was having with my work and the end result will be a stronger finished product and a better book.

Think about it. My deadline was self imposed anyway and a little delay allowed me to get some real world feedback from some people who are likely customers for my book, plus I ended up with a new concept that is helping me to convey the message of the book better visually. All in all getting opinions will likely improve the reception of this book and help it’s message spread wider, which is my primary goal for this book anyway. Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” When you’re working on a project, especially when you’re stuck or something just doesn’t feel right, don’t be afraid to get some opinions. It might really help.

Well I did it, I crossed the finish line on 50,000 words. Now onto editing and waiting to hear from a few people on how to proceed. I’ll share some thoughts on this adventure tomorrow. In the mean time here is today’s excerpt from near the end of the book.

Am I Good enough? part 3

As we near the end of this book, I wonder where you are today. Are you still discouraged? Have I written something that will make you think you’re not good enough. Well you need to know, no matter where you are, you’re good enough to start. They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Maybe today is the day to make that first step.

Are you doubting because of something you have done, or maybe something you’re continuing to do? Maybe today is the day to turn around and turn to Jesus. Give your sin to HIm. He already bore it to the cross. Ask Him to forgive you and ask Him to help you leave your sin there at the foot of the cross and never take it up again.

Are you wondering because you don’t compare to someone else. The answer to that is simple, stop comparing yourself to other people. They are on their journey and you are on yours, and while in Christ they all end up at the same place, heaven, the paths between here and there are varied and different. Instead, compare yourself to Jesus. Make no mistake, if you do, you will come up lacking. He’s perfect, you’re not, but He is the best example you can follow. Better than any example this world has to offer. So many people struggle with the will of God and what it is for your life. The first thing to consider is totally biblical but not found in the Bible. It’s found in something called the Westminster Catechism. It says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” We glorify God when we do our best in Him to honor Him in whatever He puts before us, pointing people to Him as the source of our strength and goodness. We give Him glory when we live to honor Him.

And finally if you want to know the will of God, Paul tells us what it is in Romans 12:1-2 (NIV) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Now when he says offer your body as a living sacrifice, it is not some sort of ritual that will involve your physical death. Jesus already paid that price, once and for all. Instead, it means to die to your selfish desires and submit yourself to God instead. If we truly do this we will be holy and pleasing to Him, which should be our goal. It means, once again that we turn from our sin and give Him all we are. This is the essence of real worship, submitting to God in every area of life, and anything less is, in fact, a form of idolatry.

Further he tells us not to conform to the pattern of the world. The reason for that is simple, the world is a mess. It runs under a different system, a system that has things upside down and backwards from the way they are supposed to be—completely opposite of the way God intended. This system was set in place by the one who came to steal, kill and destroy, the enemy of your soul, Satan himself. The effects of sin are running rampant everywhere, and they’re trying to drag us into it’s wake, but there is a better way. In order to get to that better way, we have to take on a radical non-conformity. We have to be different than the world. This way of thinking is really nothing new. Your mom probably showed it to you in not so many words when she said, “If all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you do it?” The smart answer to that question is “No!” Instead you would go a different way, a way different from the pattern of this world.